Militia Leader, 28, Gets 26 Years for Tough Talk

Francis August Schaeffer Cox, leader of the Alaska Peacekeeper Militia (APM), was sentenced on January 8 to a staggering 26 years in prison after he was accused of plotting to kill government employees. But those who know the 28-year-old believe he is a good patriot who has been railroaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and federal prosecutors because of his outspoken beliefs and opposition to tyranny.

Cox, who proclaimed that “God’s law” trumps “man’s law,” was convicted last summer of conspiring to murder federal and state government officials, including judges and law enforcement agents, soliciting others to commit murder and related weapons charges. Evidence included a cache of illegal weapons, detailed lists of potential targets, testimony of government informants and tape recordings of speeches and meetings, some made secretly. Cox’s sentence came a day after another member of the APM, 57-year-old Lonnie Vernon, received the same sentence.

During the trial, Cox spent two days on the witness stand, at times confidently telling the jury his philosophy and likening himself to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. He testified that he sincerely believed government agents were planning to kill him and that he was justified in taking steps to defend his family against the police.

But at his sentencing, Cox disavowed many of those stances. He and his attorney cited a post-trial psychological evaluation that concluded Cox was suffering from several disorders including paranoid schizophrenia, delusions and a paranoid personality disorder. United States District Court Judge Robert Bryan, who imposed the sentence, said he agreed Cox probably was mentally ill but said that did not excuse his actions. Bryan’s own “diagnosis” included paranoia, grandiosity, narcissism, egocentricity and pathological lying.

When this writer met Cox at a conference in Montana in the springof 2010, Cox appeared to be an intelligent,charismatic young man. Hewas full of life and patriotism. Cox, who had openly declared himself tobe a ”sovereign citizen,”was a giftedorator who spread his philosophy oflimited government to anyone who would listen. Government was tyrannical and corrupt, he said.

Because Cox believed government agents wantedhim dead, he reportedly had taken steps to makesure that didn’t happen. He regularly wore a bulletproof vest. He armed himself and surrounded himselfwith loyal armed militia members. In that context,paranoia is not a disorder but a survival instinct.

Neither Cox nor his followers were accused of actually harming other people. But they did speakabout their willingness to kill in the service of Cox’s worldview or to prevent his capture. And they tooksteps to arm themselves in the event of a bloody confrontation.They also developed plans by which to carry out their resistance. They made provocativestatements perceived as threatening to judges, lawenforcement and other federal employees, like Transportation Security Administration and Department of HomelandSecurity agents.

Cox came to the attention of the FBI in late 2009after speeches in Montana that claimed the Fairbanksmilitia had 3,500 members and was armed with mines and other military weapons. In reality, thegroup only had about a dozen members and nevertrained for military duty.

As the investigation unfolded over more than ayear, the FBI eventually used a paid informant to infiltratethe group. He recorded more than 100 hours of conversations.

Cox’s attorney, Nelson Traverso, claimed duringthe trial that the case was an overreach by prosecutorsand an attempt to silence Cox’s protected speech while assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Skrocki argued that Cox had crossed the line from offhandcomments to formulating plans to kill people.

Cox’s sentencing is the conclusion of a high-profilecase that brought Alaska into the spotlight for itshome-grown band of would-be militiamen with sovereign-citizen leanings, groups of which from aroundthe nation had come under the intensified scrutinyof the FBI. The promise of a re-election bid by Democratic President Barack Obama only heightenedtensions and a growing sense of peril. Such “extremists,”the FBI had warned, were becoming a top “domestic-terrorism” threat.